


Jace Gets Introduced to Social Media

by WritingIsLoveAndLife



Series: The Monotonously Mundane Education of Jace Herondale [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Especially Since Simon Has an Old Channel, Instagram is Impractical, Jace Goes Viral on Twitter, M/M, Simon Introduces Jace to Social Media, Tumblr is Overwhelming, Twitter is Fun, YouTube Has Potential
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 18:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18452180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingIsLoveAndLife/pseuds/WritingIsLoveAndLife
Summary: Fresh off his success with introducing Jace to pizza, Simon tries to get Jace to understand one of the most important aspects of Mundane life: Social Media





	Jace Gets Introduced to Social Media

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Hello again, everybody! I’m back with yet another piece in the Shadowhunters fandom, and it’s the second part of my series called “The Monotonously Mundane Education of Jace Herondale. This time, Simon introduces his boyfriend to the vast, overwhelming world of Mundane social media!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Shadowhunters. The series was created for television by Ed Decter, based on the books by Cassandra Clare and airs on Freeform/ABC Spark. I merely respect the series and wish to pay tribute to it, while continuing to hone my writing skills.
> 
> Enjoy the story!

While Jace Herondale had admittedly enjoyed his education in all things Mundane thus far, he’s fairly certain that he’ll never have a use for what the Mundane’s call social media. He was a Shadowhunter, when would he have time to be  _ social _ ?

 

But his boyfriend had been insistent that, if he was going to receive a full education in all things mundane, social media had to be a part of that education. Which is how he found himself next to his boyfriend, with a laptop in front of him.

 

“Do we really have to do this Sunshine?” Jace groans. “Can’t you just introduce me to another food?”

 

“Sorry Angel,” Simon says, kissing him chastely. “Social media is an important part of Mundane life, and thus, an important part of your education in all things mundane.”

 

Fine,” Jace huffs, as Simon logs onto his laptop. “Let’s see what all this fuss is about, I guess.”

 

“That’s the spirit, Angel!” Simon beams, kissing his cheek.

 

***

Their first stop was Twitter. 

Jace had begrudgingly selected the handle @SimonsAngel, which had earned him another kiss from his boyfriend, who had promptly logged into his own Twitter on his phone and changed his own handle to @JacesSunshine in solidarity.

“Welcome to Twitter, Angel,” Simon proclaimed. “Shall I show you around?”

“That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it?” Jace asks fondly. “For you to teach me?”

“That was a rhetorical question, Jace,” Simon informs him.

“Whatever you say, Si,” Jace smirks.

Simon blushed, but quickly composed himself, clearing his throat. “So, this here is your feed. It’ll show you all the tweets from people that you follow, as well as any tweets that you post yourself. Any questions so far, Angel?”

“Yeah, I have one,” Jace says. “What exactly is a tweet? As far as I’m concerned, the only tweeting should be done by the birds, Sunshine.”

“For some people, that’s true, yeah,” Simon laughs. “Twitter can get pretty insane, but it’s usually the quickest way to get news as it happens.”

“People actually trust the news they hear from this place?” Jace asks, horrified at the very prospect of that.

“Angel, Twitter is actually a very reliable place for news,” Simon assures him. “It lets you know whenever new tweets have been posted in your feed, and since the news can come straight from the source, it’s generally considered to be legit. That’s not to say there aren’t some bogus stories that make the rounds every now and then, but it’d be the same with any other social media network.”

“Okay, anything else I should know about this Twitter thing?” Jace asks.

“It’s pretty straightforward Jace. You have your search tab here, where you can search for different people or businesses to follow, and see the latest news as it happens, you’ve got your notifications, which are all of the likes, retweets and replies on your posts, you’ve got your mentions, where it’ll show you every time your handle is mentioned in a tweet, and you’re got your Direct Messages, where other users can message you privately. That’s pretty much it. Are you ready to send your first tweet?”

“I guess,” Jace shrugs. 

“While you do that, I’ll go make you some hot chocolate,” Simon decides.

“You’re the best!” Jace exclaims, kissing him, as he focuses on the screen and thinks.

His eyes flick back and forth between Simon and the screen, and a wicked grin spreads across his face. He knows  _ exactly _ what to tweet. After all, while he fully intends for this to be the only time he ever uses social media, he sees no harm in having a bit of fun in the process.

He types quickly, and presses the “Send” button, watching as his masterpiece makes it way onto the unsuspecting Mundane masses.

“Whoa!” he exclaims, as the numbers at the bottom of the tweet climb higher and higher, and the laptop starts to go haywire, pinging multiple times a second.

“What is going on, Angel?” Simon questions, as he comes back into view with a mug of hot chocolate that Jace accepts eagerly.

“I think I broke Twitter,” Jace says, still trying to process it all.

“Let’s see,” Simon says, angling the laptop towards him, and seeing the numbers climb steadily on Jace’s tweet.

“No, Angel,” he laughs. “You didn’t break Twitter, you just went viral.”

“Viral?” Jace asks, confused. “Like a viral infection. That kind of viral?”

Simon laughs. “No, it’s just a mundane expression for when things become popular on social media very quickly. Can I see what you posted?”

Jace smirks, and nods. 

Simon scrolls up, from where he had been focused on the inflating numbers. And that’s when he sees it:

**@SimonsAngel:** _ My boyfriend is forcing me to use social media in the name of education. Please send help! _

Simon, side-eyes Jace, who looks very proud.

“Jonathan Christopher Herondale, you did not,” he says, using Jace’s full name for the first time in all the months they’ve been dating.

“I did,” Jace nods.

They stare in silence at one another until they both crack, laughing uproariously.

“You are so bad, Angel,” Simon breathes out as he tries to regain his composure. “I think it’s time you got off Twitter, before it gets even more out of hand.”

“Sounds good, Sunshine,” Jace agrees.

Jace logs out, and turns the laptop toward Simon.

“Where to, next, Professor Lewis?” he questions.

***

Their next stop actually succeeds in making Jace miss the chaos of Twitter: Tumblr.

The “dashboard” as Simon calls it, is a constantly rotating collection of images and text that is like sensory overload.

“What the hell am I looking at, Sunshine?” Jace questions. “I can’t even focus because so many new things keep popping up on the screen. If this were any of the computers at the Institute, I’d be worried about an imminent demon apocalypse or something.”

“That’s what Tumblr is, Jace,” Simon explains. “You create a blog, and you post different things and people either like or reblog your posts, and you can do the same for theirs. You can type whatever you like into the search bar and chances are Tumblr will have something for you to look at.  Fandom culture is especially prevalent here.”

“I don’t like this one,” Jace says after some thought. “I can see the use for it, I guess, but it’s too much for me.”

“Alright, Angel,” Simon says gently. “Maybe this next one will be more to your liking then?”

“I seriously doubt it,” Jace informs him. “But I know you’re not going to be deterred by that, so we’ll see.”

 

***

Jace grudgingly has to admit that Instagram is much more his style than Tumblr was, even if he still doesn’t really know  _ why _ people would take pictures, and write little blurbs about them that Simon calls “captions.”

He says as much to his boyfriend.

“This is all well and good, Sunshine,” he begins. “But what’s the point of it all? People see something and say ‘Ooh, pretty! I should take a picture and post it.’ but like, who even has time for that? It’s very impractical if you ask me.”

“I can see why you’d think that, Angel,” Simon agrees. “But believe me, Instagram is pretty serious business. There are people who are famous on here, and they actually get paid to post things.”

“People make money from this?” Jace asks dubiously.

“Oh yes!” Simon laughs. “They can get paid quite a lot, actually. A lot of brands pay people and send free product to them in exchange for them posting about it on Instagram.”

Jace shakes his head. “That’s crazy. What if the product doesn’t actually work like the person promoting it, says it does.”

“Then that person usually gets some pretty angry messages about it, Angel. That’s why a lot of people are careful only to endorse products that they actually use and that actually work, but some of them don’t really care as long as they get paid. They’ll say anything they need to for a paycheque.”

“That’s awful,” Jace growls.

“It is,” Simon agrees with a nod. “Are you ready for our last stop in your education on social media?”

“By the angel, yes,” Jace agrees.

 

***

Their last stop might just be the one Jace likes the most. Twitter was fun, Tumblr was chaotic, Instagram impractical, but YouTube… YouTube has potential.

“I saved the best for last,” Simon announces. “Welcome to YouTube, Angel.”

Jace had never seen so many videos in one place, and this was just the home screen.

“It looks like they have a bit of everything here,” Jace notices.

“Oh, they do,” Simon agrees. “You can listen to music, watch people do stupid stunts, see people show off what they bought in a particular month or just watch random videos that catch your eye.”

“That sounds fun!” Jace exclaims, seeming genuinely excited for the first time in this social media experiment.

“It definitely is, Angel!” Simon agrees with a smile. “I used to have a channel. I sang my favourite songs and showed off some comic books and other stuff that I bought. It was fun!”

“There’s videos of you on here?” asks excitedly. “Can we watch?”

“You… want to watch my old videos. Really, Angel?” Simon questions.

“Of course, Sunshine!” Jace nods. “Especially the one’s where you sing!”

“Alright Angel,”  Simon agrees with a small smile at his boyfriend’s enthusiasm. “Why don’t you go make your hot chocolate, and then I’ll carry you up to a canoe and we can watch them?”

“Sounds perfect!” Jace agrees happily.

All in all, Simon guesses he can consider this social media experiment a success. Especially if Jace is smiling like that.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we have it! I hope you all liked it. I'd love to hear your feedback. Comments and Kudos feed my creativity!
> 
> In the next part, Simon will introduce his boyfriend to video games, which'll be really funny and cute, hopefully. If you'd like Simon to introduce Jace to anything specific, just let me know and I'll write it. The more suggestions I get, the longer this series can continue.
> 
> Thank you all for reading!
> 
> Until Next Time,  
> WritingIsLoveAndLife


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